The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-08-17
LAUREL CAMP.


OF the lounge in what her brothers called
their 'boudoir," and gazed with biz.
wlstful gray eyes on the animated scene
before her.
The festive preparations are indeed al
most enough to make one wish one had
been born a boy. Floor, chairs and
table are covered with choice but
varied collection of hunting boots, fish
ing tackle, cntomologists' paraphernalia
OF waxen headed pins, chloroform bot
ties, and butterfly nets, favorite authors
hammocks, and other evidences of n
right royal good time" The masculine
occupants of the room were all SO yery
deeply engrossed, that their envious sis
ters plaintivc wish fell on almost un-
needing ears.
Hal mut'cred: "W-wish you could ~
Tom gazed at her through the micro.
scope-glass he was polishing, with an eve
enormously enlarged thereby, and smiled
IN conscious masculine superiority; and
only good natured Stecnie paused in his
struggles with his knapsack (Which
seemingly declined to accommodate his
blanket, a work on anatomy, possamer
coat and dismembered gum sufficiently
long to say with genuine brotherly good
will:
"And you should go in minute, Pom
pity-it would be worth ten seaside sea-
sons to you-if it were not for Val
Graham
"Nal Graham! Who is he2 Let him
stay at home, then. To make coffee in
a dear little kettle swung on three sticks
to sleep in hammock, and be out doors
all summerW cries Miss Fleming. en-
Enthusiastically. "Oh, will go! What's
the matter with Mr.. Graham! Is he one
of your fossilized professors who would
petrify a simple maiden? / don't care
what he is, you need not imagine l would
fnd time even to look at him. T. mag-
unanimously "won't mind him bit.
"But, b-b-bless you, my child, " eiacu-
lated Hal, energetically, ''it's not Gues-
ton OF whether you would mind Val.
The boot is on the other leg. It's Val
would mimi you. There's some romantic
stoiy about his being brought up by an
unclI who had been cruelty treated bv
some lovely flirt. Youthful affections
trampled on, and all that kind of thing.
Takes to the life of hermit, and edu-
Gates the Ingenious Valentine to regard
with horror the whole female sex. Val
would sooner face 'wcnomous wiper'
than woman, aud l am confident that
If he suspected we meditatcd such treason
as the introduction of the dreaded Gle
ment, he would flee TO the uttermost
parts of the earth rather than 90 with us /.
and he the prime suggester of the camp-
ing scheme, tool Lastly, and finally, how
could such a luxurious little lady rough
1t with lot of boys among the iungles
OF New York Statel It's impossible y
"Oh, you can say impossible; but |
could go, and you would take me. if it
were not for that odious creature! How
hate himm cries Bess, stormily.
"a letter for you, Mr.. Stephep. ~ and
the dlgnihed butler steps solemnly over
the debris, and looks with stern disap-
proval at the disordered room.
From Val himself, is il not, Steenie?n
asked Tom.
'fes. Too bad, he can't go, after all
attack of malarial fever-knows Won
will have jolly time. Almost desperate
when | think of your starting without
me, reads Steenie, disjointedly.
NOW am going" and Bess starts up
impetuously.
" How can you 2"
You'll see. I'll take Martha to take
care of me, I'll be ready in an hour, Mar
tina and her budgets included, - and Bess
vanished like small whirlwind, leaving
the trio too much astonished to do aught
butstare at each other in silence.
Did she accomplish it2 OF covrse: /:
what other result was possible TO so
much energy and spirit BY the time
the Others had finished their remarkable
masculine packing, Bess, bubbling over
with merry anticipation, was soothing
the dazed Martha, who was vibrating
between feeling of gipsyish delight at
what seemed to her a mad escapade
and gloomy presentiments of inevitable
rheumatism.
The scene shifts to the wilds of the
Empire State and camp established in
their depths This is no mere fashionable
tabernacle in the wilderness, but a real
camp, with amateur cooks, with spicy
hemlock beds, and with a smoke black
ened kettle swinging over a swapping fire,
the smoke ofwhich curls lazily upward,
making misty the delicate tracery of the
waving trees against the soft summer sky,
and LaInmocks swinging like huge CO.
coons between the trees, inviting to
drOwsy repose.
A few yards away an unseen mountain
brook tumbles its ice cold water into
the rocky river, and the two sing to-
gether in low monotone, telling of fern
fringed pools and gliding trout. Through
archways cut in the glossy laurel thicket
can be seen the paths that the feet of the
straying campers have already worn to
the woodland haunts beyond.
But the glory of the camp is the struc-
ture variously known as the "house, -
''shanty," or "Laurel Lodge" Built
against a little knoll, its supports living
trees, its roof of slabs (Which the busy
little river obligingly strews along its
banks from lumber regions further north
slopes almost to the ground at the back.
Its sides are a thickly woven mat of hem
lock boughs, held in place by horizontal
boards The facade of the building pre-
sents a portal of magnii at proportions
from which the p0rtiere OF gorgeous quilt
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